Chief’s niece commits suicide over bath towel

A 25-YEAR-OLD Binga woman who is Chief Siansali’s niece allegedly committed suicide by consuming an insecticide after a dispute with her husband over a bath towel.

Chief Siansali of Kariyangwe in Binga confirmed the incident and said the family was traumatized as it recently lost another family member under similar circumstances.

He said the family was yet to come to terms with the death of Melody Mwinde (25) of Dandanda village who left behind a less than one-year-old baby following her death on Tuesday 11 July.

The incident happened at the now-deceased’s homestead.

“It’s a case of my niece who had a dispute with her husband. There was no suicide note and we are a bit traumatised by the incident because in June we buried a brother who committed suicide again. So we don’t know if it’s just coincidence and we don’t know what could have befallen us as a family,” said Chief Siansali.

He encouraged people who may be having problems in life or in families to seek counselling and help.

“As Chief, I urge people that where there are issues learn to speak out, and share because bottling up problems leads to disaster. That’s why we have village heads and families to assist us solve issues amicably,” he said.

Police are investigating the case.

Details of the case are that on Monday at around 7pm, the now deceased had a misunderstanding with her husband Mr Accent Munsaka over a bathing towel resulting in her assaulting him with an invertor on the face.

The dispute was however resolved and the two went to bed.

The following morning at about 7am, the now deceased allegedly woke up and approached her mother-in-law Ms Kelina Mwembe and told her to take care of her children as she had intentionally drunk a poisonous insecticide.

Ms Mwembe saw her carrying an empty 200ml of white insecticide container.

The now deceased went back to a bedroom hut where her husband was sleeping but collapsed at the door.

Ms Mwembe rushed to the scene and discovered that she was vomiting and froth had covered her mouth.

The husband carried her to Kariangwe Mission Hospital but she died along the way.

A report was made to the police and it was discovered that she consumed Dichlorvos 100EC insecticide.

The body was taken to Chief Siansali’s homestead while waiting to be taken to United Bulawayo Hospitals for postmortem.

-@ncubeleon